


the one with the candy

by SapphicMetatron



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Halloween, Introspection, Pining, Slice of Life, i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27269590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphicMetatron/pseuds/SapphicMetatron
Summary: Halloween, yet another holiday that eluded Angella’s understanding.
Relationships: Adora/Angella (She-Ra)
Kudos: 39





	the one with the candy

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this on a whim. Ties into [The One Who Loved +](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26610637/chapters/64882705) because I can't help myself. Set in Chapter 2, sometime between the library scene and the training grounds scene. May not make sense without context.
> 
> Thanks to my bff for beta reading and editing and being amazing.

It was Halloween...or something. Yet another holiday that eluded Angella’s understanding, but had been ingrained in Etherian culture since before her arrival.

The themes of this particular celebration dwelled in the macabre, yet the parties thrown were as colorful and whimsical as they came. It somehow wasn’t distasteful to hang plastic skeletons and dress up as mangled animated corpses during times of war, so long as it was attached to a holiday.

But parties helped with morale and stress. Angella allowed the odd festivities in her castle.

She did have a few stern instructions for her daughter. She knocked on Glimmer’s door the day prior to deliver a warning. “I want  _ no  _ decor in my room or in my study. I still have work to do and I need  _ peace and quiet.” _

Per usual, Glimmer opened her door just enough to see her face through the crack. She rolled her eyes and groaned. “Mom, what makes you think I would go in your office during a  _ party?  _ You have _ nothing _ to worry about.” 

The door was suddenly forced open by an excited Bow who grinned from ear to ear. “Your Majesty! You should totally join us tomorrow! We’ll make you a costume!”

“U-um…” Angella was momentarily taken aback by...the sheer chaos let loose in Glimmer’s room. It was like an entire kindergarten class had exploded. Glitter and construction paper and cardboard and pieces of fabric and string- the staff would be finding orange and purple confetti for years to come.

It all looked relatively harmless, at least. Unless that mystery strawberry juice-looking liquid was spiked.

“I…” she blinked away the stupor, “ _ thank you  _ for the invitation, Bow. I’m afraid I can’t join, but you have fun.”

Glimmer deflated. “See, Bow?”

And the door was promptly slammed right in front of Angella’s nose. She felt like she had given the wrong answer, failed a test.

Regardless of whether she had  _ wanted  _ to participate, to try to squeeze where she didn’t fit, the choice wasn’t in her hands. Someone had to run Brightmoon. Someone had to command a Rebellion.

As Angella moved on with her day, she realized she hadn’t seen Adora anywhere in Glimmer’s room, or in the castle altogether.

Her relationship with the woman was...an odd one. Not quite friendship, even though they had shared comfortable conversation many times without any titles or duties in the middle. They’d had their rocky moments. Angella still shamefully remembered screaming at her to leave her room.

Sneaking into someone’s chambers, regardless of the reason, was inappropriate. However…

At that point, it made no sense to regret anything. Angella did her best to keep Adora out of her thoughts for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day, Angella stepped out of her room. She had forgotten everything about  _ Halloween  _ until it hit her in the face like a wall.

Who in the world decided to hang string cobwebs and blanket ghosts all over the hallways? Angella feared for the rest of her day. She just wanted to  _ work in peace. _

Angella had no other choice but to push forwards and try to keep her head down, lest her hair ended up tangled with strings and fake plastic spiders. Oh, if her hair was ruined by the end of the day,  _ someone  _ was going to pay  _ somehow.  _ It took  _ so  _ long to grow. 

This was hardly the first Halloween Angella had experienced, but it was certainly the most...animated. In previous instances, there was hardly the energy or joy to spend in organizing these ridiculous events. But now there was hope. Now there was Adora.

She was like a sun. She glowed all the time and had absolutely no idea about it. And while nobody else  _ felt  _ Adora the way Angella - an angelic being sensitive to magical auras- could, they still unconsciously gravitated towards her energy.

The woman was truly remarkable, and absolutely had to get out of her head if Angella wanted to get anything done.

Several stacks of documents and meetings later, the sun was setting and a starless night rose. Angella exited the war room with General Juliet in tow. While she sneered at the guards who had chosen to glue devil horns on their helmets or wear vampire teeth, Angella couldn’t help a small smile. That day, some things were slightly out of place in a way she found amusing.

“Your Majesty, watch out!” Fast as lightning, Juliet stepped forward, withdrew her sword and struck down a plastic skeleton before it jumped on Her Majesty’s face.

The sad thing, now crumpled on the ground, was kicked to the side by the general’s ruthless boot. She sheathed her sword and addressed Angella with all the seriousness in the world. “The threat has been taken care of.”

Angella sighed, hand over her pounding chest. “Thank you, general, though I’m not sure that was worth the heart-attack.” Worst case scenario, she was bonked in the face by some flimsy plastic. Most likely, she would’ve ducked safely.

However, the general’s expression didn’t ease. “Are you sure this…” she surveyed the spooky decorations, “...was a good idea? Not to question your decision. I just imagine...that party your daughter and her  _ friends  _ are planning can’t be much better, and it’s not too late to cancel it.”

“I’m...not going to do that. Everyone deserves this time to unwind, and I trust their judgment.” This war helped Angella open up to the idea that Glimmer was a grown woman, though it was still...a long path to acceptance.

Motherhood was an unending odyssey, and nobody gave her a proper warning.

The general squared her jaw. She didn’t quite agree. “Then I’ll trust yours.”

Bass rumbled through the walls of the castle. Angella, mildly concerned, peeked into the main hall where the party was being held.

The flashing, dancing lights were dizzying. The costumes were startling. Princess Frosta dwarfed everyone in the room with her giant ice-golem suit, but was at least being escorted by someone wrapped in mummy bandages beyond recognition. Nothing was broken or breaking. Everyone danced and mingled innocently.

Besides, if something was truly going on, her guards would act on it. Hopefully.

Angella let the tension drop from her shoulders, crossed her arms and leaned against the wall by the door frame. There, in the dark, away from the crowd, she was unlikely to be spotted. So she watched and reminisced.

These kinds of gatherings were and always would be dreadful. It wasn’t the noise or the laughter. Something about large numbers of people squeezed in a room made Angella want to  _ stay away. _

Nowadays, nobody cared if she skipped an event like this. In the past, however, a once Crown Princess Angella had to network with the current Etherian royalty, which meant subjecting herself to balls and parties and the  _ Princess Prom  _ and- just thinking about it made her nauseous.

But, at least, Micah had been there.

He had been her rock and her shield. While eccentric and sometimes awkward, he had no issues speaking circles around all the queens and kings and princesses and princes. Dull, uncomfortable affairs turned worthwhile just...by having him there.

Angella missed him and he deserved better.

It...didn’t quite hurt to think of him these days, not like it used to. The nostalgia was a gentle caress of loss, not the chokehold of grief around her throat. 

No, Angella watched the party, spotted her daughter dancing with Bow, and realized the lump in her throat came from somewhere else.

She was lonely.

So inconceivably lonely.

And the reality of it hit her all at once.

Eyes burning and breath hitching, Angella retreated into the empty hallways of the castle, before noticing the set of baby blue eyes that spotted her from the crowd.

Angella centered her thoughts around the tasks she had yet to finish. She used a wisp of moonstone light to aid in avoiding some of the pesky Halloween ornaments that could smack her in the forehead and thread through her hair. 

As Angella called the magic to her fingertips, she  _ sensed  _ it as a wave of minty flavor on her tongue. It used to make her nauseous. Now it was easy to ignore.

She envisioned her office and the dull documents waiting for her. It was sobering. Breathing in, then out, and the suffocating sadness was gone.

Just another night. Everything would go back to normality and quietness in a few hours. The staff would have more of a mess than usual to clean up, but...

The rhythm would find its way to settle. To be stale and pessimistic. 

For now, it wouldn’t let up. The castle thrummed with corny Halloween music, and someone followed Angella.

She  _ sensed  _ Adora long before she saw her, or rather,  _ tasted  _ her (though it was more accurate to say the sensations were triggered by She-Ra and her power, but it was Adora that came to her mind’s eye.) Angella might never admit to it. The magic that radiated from Adora at all times flooded Angella’s tongue whenever she was sufficiently close.

She tasted of everything sweet and tart and sour, of fruits and sugar and honey. Anything Angella would ever want to taste in her lifetime and more. It was perfect and whole, like...home. 

But Angella was a sentient being with agency who chose to walk away from it. She took confusing twists and turns in a castle that she knew like the back of her hand. There was work to be done and no time to entertain someone so fascinating she wasn’t meant to befriend.

Work. Work plugged her ears like water rushing in as the ocean grew darker, grew heavier.

The flavors persisted. The sun chased after her, as if she could sense Angella back. She knew for a fact this was impossible, or was it? She-Ra was ancient and misunderstood, a myth brought to life. Angella’s heels clicked in a fast staccato. The shadowy halls wound together in their erratic pursuit. Angella wanted to sink, wanted to  _ drown.  _ It was somehow less terrifying than breaking through the surface.

The columns of sunlight reached through, relentless. Adora’s voice echoed. “Your Majesty!”

Angella spun around with a gasp, cape billowing behind her, to find Adora rounding a corner. The moonlight only revealed her face.

She  _ smiled  _ at her, so genuine and true. An expression so bright drawn by sighting her,  _ Angella. _

It dropped only slightly as she caught herself. Right, things were a little odd between them, and Angella wasn’t helping by standing there with her shaky hands.

“Um- why are you...not at the party?” Adora asked, a bit unsure.

Angella struggled to form a coherent word, shaking her head and performing dismissive gestures. “I...can’t. I have work to do.”

Adora threw her head back with a groan.  _ “Your Majesty,” _ then, she started crossing the distance, walking closer, making her pleasant, flavorful presence all the more intense, “you deserve a break too! Come!”

“Adora, please…” Angella was too tired to pretend and put up her walls of politeness. She simply turned and walked away.

Adora persisted in her chase. “Whatever it is can wait, right? Are you going to your office?”

“I am.”

“I know you can spare  _ one  _ night!”

“Please, have mercy. Bow already extended an invitation and I don’t know if I have the heart to turn more down.”

Adora smirked and quickened her pace. “That means that if I ask enough times, you’ll eventually give in!” When Angella only offered silence, Adora intercepted her path to clasp her hands in a prayer and offer the biggest, roundest blue eyes, which sparkled under the light of the moonstone. “Pleeeease!”

“Adora-”

“I’ll dance with you! And only you!”

Angella felt her cheeks flush ever so slightly and she laughed it off. “I wouldn’t dance if I were to go. Which-which I am  _ not.” _

“Then we don’t dance?”

“Adora.” She hardened her features, sure to thoroughly wipe any trace of humor or weakness. “I  _ cannot.  _ This is not about choice.”

_ I cannot. _

_ I cannot. _

She  _ could not.  _ Could not rise. Could not resurface. Could not see what lay at the other side.

Could not see uncertainty. Could not see vastness.

And she could not let the sun shine upon her face.

Adora contorted her features, matching in seriousness, and placed her hands on her hips. “Why not? You can choose whatever. You’re the queen.” She delivered this with far more conviction than Angella ever could.

“Someone needs to keep the cogs turning. There are things that  _ need  _ to get done, and that is my responsibility.”

As much as Angella wished to shift her tone, to not come across as condescending, she was still talking down to an adult woman as though she were a child. And Adora picked up on it, judging by the tightening of her jaw.

“I’m...I’m not going to compare my duties as She-Ra to yours as queen, but I know that if I need to shut down my brain to not go crazy for one night, then...it’s probably the case for you too.”

Angella pressed her lips into a fine line and dropped her gaze.

“I just...want you to be with everyone else, for once.”

_ So I seem lonely to you.  _ And yet Adora’s intentions were pure. They  _ oozed  _ purity, like a clear waterfall.

Angella had no words.

It was ever so tempting to lean into the positives, to say yes, to stare into an idea and think nothing more genius had ever been conceived, when it was thoroughly ludicrous. All in Adora’s magical presence.

Angella clenched her eyes shut. She was no mindless moth drawn to a flame. She could and should resist.

There was perhaps a timeline in which Angella never approached Adora that one night, in which they never, ever became anything more than reluctant acquaintances. A planet grazing past orbit and getting lost in interstellar space.

“I...I’m sor-”

“I made you a costume too! Or, well, an accessory.” Adora searched inside a large paper bag Angella just realized she carried.

Shifting the moonstone light to reach farther revealed...well. Angella couldn’t resist snickering at what was supposed to be Adora’s costume. 

“What?” Adora cocked an eyebrow at her, then looked down at herself in realization. “Oh, yeah, it looks fucking awful, but I made it and I’m proud of it.”

“It’s...very abstract.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m supposed to be a knight.”

So those jagget bits of cardboard sprayed with silver were supposed to be a chest plate and pauldrons. “Right.” 

“Here it is!” Adora procured a…fuzzy loop of sorts (these costumes became progressively confusing) and set down the paper bag to properly handle it. “It’s a halo! You know, because, angels-whatever. Can I put it on you?”

Angella was gobsmacked. “You...made this for me.”

“Yeah. Took a bit to find the wire but- I promise there’s no sharp ends.” 

Her heart melted. Just a little bit. Angella let the smile take over her face and bowed her head. “Go on.”

She must be truly losing her mind entrusting Adora to crown her with a homemade wire accessory. It settled awkwardly on her head, and the additional weight wobbled with every tilt.

Adora snickered, observing her creation. “Now we have matching ugly costumes!”

Angella poked the papery loop on her head and felt thoroughly honored. “I...don’t know what to say.”

“How about:  _ thank you, Adora, I’d love to come to the party with you!” _

“I  _ don’t _ sound like that.”

“That’s not the point!” Steadfast, Adora planted her feet on the ground and crossed her arms. She was going nowhere until her goal was fulfilled. 

But Angella also had a goal. “Do you have candy with you?” It was an innocent enough question.

Adora seemed eager to share some sweets, because she reached into her bag, “catch,” and tossed one into Angella’s hand.

It was an innocent question. Her intentions wouldn’t make sense to anyone but an angelic being. Her thumbs worked through the wrapper, then tossed the candy into her mouth.

The spice was pungent and overpowering as it flooded her sixth sense. It pushed all else out, no matter how wonderful, no matter how magical. Angella exhaled deeply, unglued her gaze from Adora’s expecting face, and walked past her.

“Okay, fine, I’ll just say it.” Adora announced, her voice flat. “Glimmer sprayed your office chair with silly string.”

Angella spun around, eyes widening with fire. “Wh- she  _ what?!” _

“I explicitly asked her to stay away from my office!”

Angella complained to no one in particular, lamenting at the sight of her tall, comfortable chair covered in criss-cross patterns of gross goo. It was an expensive commission. The cushions were top-quality, and the person who made it had passed a while ago.

For some reason, Adora followed her instead of going back to her party. For some reason, she took it upon herself to begin wiping away the mess before it hardened, using a piece of her costume as a spatula.

Guilt, perhaps? “Did you have anything to do with this?” Angella asked her sternly.

Adora jumped slightly. “No! I’d never! Unless I was drunk, or something-”

“What?”

“I was in Glimmer’s room pretty much all day until the party. Making all the costumes and stuff.”

“Then how did you know?”

She looked up with her clear eyes. Everything about this woman was so transparent, Angella had to make an effort to remain walled and question her. “I saw Glimmer teleport in with the can, and she told me.” 

Angella’s shoulders dropped with an exhale. “Alright. I believe you.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you.” Adora smiled, then resumed cleaning her chair.

Angella couldn’t just leave She-Ra, the hero of Etheria, to wipe her furniture. So she got on her knees and joined her.

The chair had to be removed by the staff for proper care. At least, the likelihood of it getting out of this incident unscathed was greater since they removed the substance while it was still wet. 

“Just so you know,” and for  _ some reason,  _ Adora was still here, watching the chair be taken away at her side, “I didn’t just come looking for you because of this.”

Angella frowned at her, “but you did have a plan. You weren’t-you weren’t just going to distract me and let my chair be ruined, right?”

She grimaced, “Glimmer...was supposed to come here and clean it up, but since we never made it back…”

“She knows I found out.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, then paced towards her desk. With no chair, she’d have to take her work back to her bedroom. At least nothing else had been vandalised, not her books or decor. Angella placed her hands on her desk. “I can’t just let her get out of this with no consequence. I have to…”

To what?

If Glimmer intended to fix her own mess, this meant she already felt regret. She knew it was wrong. But one day it could be the chair, and the next the rest of her office.

Standing in the middle of the room, Adora seemed uncomfortable and conflicted. She had a lot to say, as well as reasons not to. “Your Majesty, I...I don’t want to get between you and Glimmer. I could go...if you want?”

Odd.

Angella expected Adora to try to save her friend. Instead, she refused to pick sides, for better or worse.

Things should have been left there, with Adora leaving and Angella pondering the proper way to communicate how unacceptable this was to her adult daughter. The candy was small on Angella’s tongue but still intensely sweet.

“What do you think?” Asked Angella. Thoroughly ambiguous and thoroughly unfair. “You’re not obligated to reply, of course.”

Adora pondered for a few moments, biting her lip, then shrugged. Smiling playfully, she said. “I think you should get back at her.” 

“Get back at…”

Of course, Adora meant this in true Halloween spirit. She somehow convinced Angella to take twenty minutes out of her evening to “prank” her own daughter like she tried to do to her.

Adora was the mastermind behind going to Glimmer’s room, then arranging the cardboard costume and wire halo into a vaguely threatening shape to be covered with a blanket.  _ I’m only going along with this because it’s harmless,  _ Angella convinced herself, the lingering fake spice flavors still coating her tongue.

Everything was set up. Adora made Angella wait at the balcony, hidden behind the curtains, while she went to lure Glimmer. Maybe it was the sheer confidence with which she gave orders to a monarch, or how clearly amused and excited she was about “spooking” her friend, but Angella did as she was told.

Alone, she perched herself on the railing, wings outstretched and feeling the faint wind currents balance her.

Flashing lights spilled from within the castle, but the forest remained ignorant, uncaring. It guarded its silence behind a dense cage of trees.

What  _ was  _ Angella doing, anyway? What had she been doing for the past ten years?

Hiding. Always hiding. Just like...now.

The empty night sky was always so depressing. Angella would close her eyes before she could look up.

There was a scream. Unmistakable in shrillness. “Glimmer!” Angella leapt down and dashed past the curtains, only to be nearly blasted in the face. Cardboard and fabric up in flames with moonstone magic grazed past the tips of her hair as she gracefully dodged to the side. 

The makeshift monster had a long fall. Past the loud whoosh of the fiery thing sounded uncontrollable laughter. It was Adora, doubled over in belly-shaking cackles. Right. They planned this. But since when was there fire involved?

Next to her was Glimmer, wide eyed and confused and...wearing really odd eyeliner and a ridiculous black cape. “M-mom? What are you doing here?”

“I-”

Adora interjected rather smugly. “You got her chair, so I helped her get you back.” 

Glimmer flushed, though she didn’t seem upset. Surprised, yes, but almost pleasantly so. “You...this was your idea?” She asked, eyes landing on Angella.

Angella was burning from the inside out from embarrassment. “N-no. Glimmer…” She sighed, smoothing her features. “We should talk.”

“So,” Glimmer was a lot less amused now, “you did this because  _ Adora  _ told you to.”

“No!” Angella stepped back, hand on her chest. “No, it was a...suggestion. I simply recognized that being...so stern all the time wasn’t always productive.” Yes. That made sense. Probably. Except her daughter eyed her with squinty eyes. “Glimmer, I don’t know why you chose to disregard my boundaries, but it’s not okay to-”

“Because you always-” She clenched her fists, glaring holes into the ground. “You-you turn everything down and push everyone away like you’re too good for a  _ party.” _

“Too-too  _ good?” _

“Yeah! Like you’re better than everyone else because  _ you’re  _ responsible,  _ you’re  _ still working while everyone’s making dumb costumes!”

Angella opened her mouth to let out an equally heated retort, but none came. She was shocked and speechless that her daughter thought so little of her.

Enough years had passed for her to understand that motherhood was never a part of her roster of abilities. She could fuss and protect and care, but...perhaps was too aloof to properly nurture. Too inclined to observe rather than intervene, so long as there was no obvious threat. 

Whether it was a part of her nature that she couldn’t help didn’t matter, however. Glimmer was hurt, right then and there. A war waged beyond their walls, and loss stalked in the shadows.

Angella dropped her defensive posture and started. “Next time.”

She frowned in confusion. “Next time?”

“Next year.” A shrug. “I’ll...participate.”

“Really.”

She crossed her arms and raised her chin. “Really.” 

Glimmer’s eyes flickered past her shoulder. It was Adora who pulled her attention as she tried to sneak away from the scene. 

“If you want, I guess. It’s just a party.” Glimmer rolled her eyes and turned to take her leave.

“Glimmer…” Angella reached out, but it did nothing to stop her.

She was lonely in a castle inhabited by friendly souls, and it was no one’s fault but hers.

And with the candy gone, leaving behind nothing but a bright orange stain on Angella’s tongue, she could  _ feel  _ the sun pull away. 

She-Ra glowed. She-Ra burned. But Adora made her a force for life and warmth.

“Adora.” She spun around, cape rustling with the rush. 

The woman, now looking as she usually did without the cardboard clinging to her form, stopped in her tracks and turned to face her. “Y-yeah?”

“Where are you going?”

“To my room. It’s not like I have a costume anymore.” It was destroyed by Glimmer in her startled craze. 

“So you  _ need  _ a costume for these...events.”

Adora scratched the back of her head in discomfort. “I don’t think so. Look, I’m sorry. I probably made things worse between you two with my dumb idea, and-”

Angella crossed the distance between them and, guided by impulse, grasped Adora’s hand in hers. The woman gave her a puzzled stare, but didn’t seem frightened or apprehensive.

“Would you...keep me company?” Asked Angella. “I have work to catch up on, so I won’t be very talkative, it’s-it’s extremely dull, so if you have anything better to do…”

Adora glowed. A solar flare, as mesmerizing as it was devastating for Angella’s heart, and burning as she squeezed her hand. “Sure!”

Selfish. Truly, undeniably selfish. Angella was aware of how she pushed and pulled Adora, although it was not born out of some twisted desire. Rather, this woman made her feel things that confused her: hope and intrigue and excitement all at once. Yet a queen had no time to stare out the window, wishing to fly away in pursuit of  _ more. _

Angella was, unfortunately, utterly caught in Adora’s orbit, much like the rest of Etheria. There was no denying the pull.

Adora walked beside her, staring at her own shoes. She glowed without She-Ra’s help and had  _ no idea;  _ she hung her head low like she was beneath all of Brightmoon while being the most beautiful anomaly Angella had encountered in a long time. 

The kind of wonder that made her fall in love with a foreign world a little bit more.

An absent-minded Angella was blind. She had gone through the motions of unlocking her chamber doors enough times to follow through on autopilot. 

But she didn’t see the gooey cobweb hanging across the doorway until she walked straight into it. A yelp jumped right out of her lips, startling two guards and a legendary warrior into a fighting stance.

“Your Majesty!”

“Are you okay?!”

Angella turned around, stiff as a statue if it were covered in bird waste. “Is...is it in my hair?”

Adora was the one to answer, “y-yeah…”

“A-ah.” Angella turned several shades paler. “Make yourself at home, Adora, I, I have to-” She rushed to the bathroom.

By the time Angella reemerged from the bathroom wrapped in a fuzzy robe, she was still running a comb through her pink hair. It had taken far too long to get all of it out, and even longer to make sure it was all gone, and...well, at the end of the day, Angella got nothing done.

The room was bathed in soft warm light from a single lamp coming from her lounge area. Adora snoozed softly on her couch with a picture book of marine biology blanketing her chest. 

Dragged all the way out here to wait alone. At the very least she didn’t abstain from searching Angella’s bookshelf. Angella may or may not have stocked it with more heavily illustrated material once she learned of Adora’s preference for it.

Setting her comb on a table and taking a soft spare blanket, she moved to cover Adora, then remove the book as gently as she could.

Despite her efforts, Adora jostled awake. “Sorry, I…”

“No, it’s alright. I took...an obscene amount of time.  _ I’m  _ sorry.” Angella folded the book and set it on the coffee table. “My hair is...let’s just say, if I cut it all off, you would have young grandchildren by the time it got back to this length.”

Adora winced and self-consciously touched her ponytail. “Wow. If I’d known...And I thought my hair grew slow. I’d probably kill someone if I were you. Are you gonna yell at Glimmer?”

“At this hour? I’ll consult that with the pillow.”

“Mmm.” Her eyes threatened to shut closed without a care in the world. “Do you want me to go?”

“No.” Was Angella’s simple, straightforward answer, as she pulled the blanket over Adora’s shoulders. “Rest well.”

“Night.”

Angella walked away, intending to sit down for a half-hour to get  _ something  _ done. Time trickled slowly as her feet padded across the cool tiles. She didn’t need to look upon Adora’s face to bask in her presence, to feel like peace could last forever.

“I hate that book.” Adora mumbled, rolling onto her side and half-heartedly pointing at the marine biology picture book on the table.

Angella frowned. “Why’s that?”

“‘Cause now I know how many freaky looking creatures live in the ocean, like...” she kept going, and try as Angella might, she could not understand the incoherent string of mushy words that followed. Something about giant angler fish and 30 foot long bobbit worms?

Adora’s lips stilled. Her breathing slowed. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have nightmares. Someone so caring and noble and thoughtful didn’t deserve them.

Angella sat in her chair. Stacks of paper waited. She couldn’t focus on one letter. They just didn’t seem to matter.

Not with the sun shining so gently on her face, tracing notes of a happy tomorrow on her cheeks and lulling her to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you have a happy halloween, or a nice day in general if you don't celebrate it!


End file.
